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StoryNet

Group name: StoryNet

Description:

Introducing the StoryNet

There are not enough places in our world to tell our stories. Real-life stories, your stories. What they mean, and how the meaning you attach to them can shape the way you live. So, I’m creating a space and I call it the StoryNet. I want to gather your stories, find out how you’re living your best life, if you’re fearlessly facing your own transformation, if you’re using your gifts and talents to change our world. And if you’re not, why not? What’s getting in your way? I’m tired of being told we live in the age of information. As David Whyte writes:

This is not the age of information.

Forget the news, and the radio, and the blurred screen.

This is the time of loaves and fishes.

People are hungry, and one good word is bread for a thousand.

This is the age of story. And one good story can light our way.

This is what I do. I’m a life coach, which I could name a dozen ways: creativity coach, ontological coach, meaning coach but maybe the best description would be a story coach. Basically, I’m a listener. I listen deeply when you tell me salient parts of your life, past and present. That’s where your identity lives, in the language of your stories and the meaning you make of them. Your telling and my listening will lead to dialogue. And when it goes well, the dialogue will enrich our lives.

This column is an invitation for you to share your stories, or at least fragments of them. Obviously, space is limited. But it’s a start, an introduction, if you like, to the possibilities of story coaching. Let me begin by telling you something about myself.

I was widowed at the age of 23. It set me on a course of trying to find a new place to belong. I moved halfway around the world to an entirely different culture. I was married three times. In the end, I raised two boys, alone. I’ve gone back to school several times. And in my mid-40’s, I launched my life’s work in a new way. Within these parameters are a number of stories through which I live and attach meaning. Together they make “me” but there is a deeper truth: I am more than the stories I tell to myself and to others about who I be. And I need to tell my stories out loud to wake myself up to what’s working, what feels right, and what definitely has to change.

Each story has a voice, some have several. When I find voice, it brings me closer to who I am becoming. When I hear voice, I have a choice about how I want to move forward in my life. And when other people share their stories with me, I learn something again about myself. Like Persephone, when we’ve traveled the underworld and are allowed to come back home it’s because we have a story to tell the community. The telling may ease and enlighten others on their journeys.

We learn about the business of life by telling our stories to ourselves and to each other. In fact, life is learning. Learning what it is to be human. And stories are soul sustenance along the way.

Why take the time to tell or hear a story? Because, as Oscar Wilde said, One’s real life is so often the life one does not lead.

I invite you to communicate your experience in this monthly column. It can be a question, a poem, a story … and woven into the fabric of the StoryNet it will become wisdom. I’ll be the keeper of your story when you email it to me. I will then answer your questions, share your poems, and reveal your stories in ways that will serve our whole community. This is a confidential process. If there are things you don’t want shared with the larger community then please tell me and I will keep those things private.

The StoryNet is an ongoing dialogue about the business of life and how to find a compass that navigates us through tough times. My goal is to help you find ways to listen to your many voices so you can learn more about your authentic self, your original voice and your real purpose. Because the more authentic you are, the more true success you’ll enjoy and the more alive you’ll feel.

So, send me a question, pen me a poem, tell me a piece of your story.

What is the story you haven’t yet lived?

How can you make it your living story now?

Email me:            Magdalen@CrucibleCommunication.com

Brief description: A monthly Q & A column written by Magdalen Bowyer for and about RRU Alumni.

Interests: Storytelling

Website: http://www.CrucibleCommunication.com